Don't shoot the messenger

Designmuseum’s main exhibition of the autumn season addresses contemporary phenomena and challenges in graphic design from the perspectives of Finnish and international designers.

Graphic designers are messengers, whose role is being redefined as their professional field is expanding, as in many other areas of the arts and design. This exhibition at Designmuseum explores the present state of graphic design and asks where it is headed.

A separate entity within the exhibition consists of the exhibit Fully Booked: Ink on Paper which has been compiled of work by 29 designers in up to 300 printed publications. This exhibit has been curated by the Gestalten publishing house of Berlin. The featured designers include Stefan Sagmeister and Coralie Bickford-Smith.

Don’t Shoot the Messenger asks how contemporary phenomena appear in the work of contemporary designers. These include critical design and political views, the birth and death of media, the changing concept of work, new methods such as participatoriness, and changes in tools and technologies.

The graphic design of the exhibition is by Tsto, a Helsinki-based design office.